Part of why I love Trimax so much is how it reframes Vash's relationship with Rem and deepens his reasoning on why he doesn't kill people.
In 98 anime his motivation for that is largely centered around grief. If he kills a person, then the last thing of Rem he has would be lost. And the way Rem didn't even talk to him directly about her personal convictions back in his childhood, Vash saw her pacify a violent crew member (presented as a rather unpleasant guy in fact) and internalised it as the ultimate essence of her.
In Trimax the flashback goes quite differently. There's no violent crew members present - the source of violence in that scene is Vash himself, and I think this shift of perspective is vital to understand the entire framework of the manga. Rem talks directly to him, and the final decision on whether he would actually commit murder is ultimately left to him. And then he doesn't. And him and Rem actually talk, have a heart to heart, Rem explains to him her own trauma and motivation for joining the SEEDS crew. It is very raw, intimate, and Vash comes out of it with an understanding of why killing a person is wrong - because all that interiority, all that potential to live again, it will be lost forever if a death occurs. And having been the one who lashed out, attacked another person (and himself!) out of his own anger, fear and grief, he also gains a perspective on how violence is perpetuated between people. His pacifism in Trimax is no longer about Rem, but about his own experience with facing violence and perpetuating it in turn.
So I recently had really bad art block but I saw your art piece called tie the knot, with the gauntlet hand and the hawk, and it was so gorgeous and inspiring I may have recreated it in embroidery. Your art is so gorgeous and the composition of the sharp fingered armour with the soft feathers of the hawk just captured my attention and held it for DAYS. I'd make fanart if I could, but embroidery is the best I can do! I hope you like it :)
YOOOO YOOOO FUCKKKBCGFGBBB
The way i showed it to my mom. Like im sorry but it's literally the highest possible praise I could get - to inspire someone to do something beautiful. And you chose my composition too!!!!! Freak shit!!!! I'm gonna print this photo and eat it. Thank you so much!
Everyone look immediately upon this blessed thing. The skill??? The power??? Embroidery is low-key magic to me like i understand beads but to do this with cords is truly incredible. And look at that 3d actual cloth that forms the favor.... Ffuuuuuckkkk i need to lie down
I think it was a pretty good ending! It definitely isn't life changing for me, but there is a lot of fun stuff to think about. I feel that 12 episode constraint was the real problem, if anything. I honestly need to rewatch the whole thing so I have a coherent picture, but here are some thoughts.
1. I really appreciate that they actually made Trimax epilogue read the way it was intended (my assumption of course) - as a happy one. Vash truly seems unburdened in Stargaze, his friends are with him and alive, and there's a bright future they'll have all together. Trimax ending was brutal for me bc of how Vash, despite everything, was STILL hunted and shot at. I will not go off about it rn but just you know. I have opinions on Trimax ending.
2. Sadge that my ultimate fan service dream was not realized and not everyone lived. But i gotta say that it made sense why specifically Knives and Legato didn't make it. I'll elaborate.
3. So, Legato. I know everyone is up in arms about it, but frankly I don't think his Trimax backstory had much chance to be put to screen - even with how ep 11-12 of Stampede went! It just is way too direct about sexual abuse like ain't no way it fit with the rest of Stampede/Stargaze. Ultimately his character in Stargaze is an improved version of 98 Legato. He's unhinged and slavishly loyal to Knives, but now we have a bit more knowledge of his thoughts about it.
Legato stays undisputed champion of doomed by the narrative olympics, let's all clap 👏👏👏👏👏👏
3. Knives. Now that's a very interesting thonk to think, mostly because of how big of a difference there is between his Stampede characterization and the Trimax characterization. The ending he ultimately got was Trimax, but it is very hard to fit the "he was just afraid and protective and didn't want his loved ones to be hurt again" over the confident, cold and self-assured Knives we saw before. I think they could have sold this turnaround if they had more time to show us that side of Knives, but they didn't.
4. Zazie potential is still unexplored, as well as the metaphor of greenery = healing that is more than a bit fraught if you think about it for too long. But that is just my personal preference. I do appreciate the crumbs of their relationship with Milly, it is really sweet.
5. I liked the way they closed off Elendira's arc. She gets to be a child she actually is, finally, and congratulations on beating the narrative!
6. Fanservice crumbs are very tasty. I liked that girls finally have families we actually see, Meryl's background (though I would have liked a bit more foreshadowing on her playing the piano) playing a role in the finale, Wolfwood and Livio being sillay again...
Special mention to the guy a friend dabbed "Roberto's lost husband". I thought that it was really sweet moment for Meryl to be acknowledged as a professional.
7. Very funny how ensemble cast brought shipping stocks to an all time low. I believe they are all friends but as a certified fujo I need drama and doomed affection to live. However. Meryl and Milly's relationship has never been this fleshed out. I got mine that's what I'll say. Milly protecting Meryl in the cursed elevator 🤤🤤🤤🤤 tattooing it on my retinas.
Anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk. Live and suffer alone no longer.
Anyone else hyped for Meryl going to have a redo of her confrontation with Elendira while Roberto's death is haunting her left and right, and Milly is so mortal and human and squishy by her side and she Has to protect her newbie.
it's funny you brought up that chapter, because the trigaze scene reminded me of a completely different moment!
Trimax Volume 4, chapter 4
on my memory this is the first instance of Vash trusting the girls explicitly, particularly Milly! he knows there's great danger, but he also knows insurance girls are quite capable and trusts in both of them. I've always liked this moment, especially juxtaposed with Wolfwood acting so overbearing, Vash is level-headed and trusting
obviously, it makes sense that in stargaze him learning to trust his friends comes up now, and with Wolfwood being in a much better state (mentally, narratively) it also makes sense that he doesn't argue against girls coming along, although I'm curious as to how he acts in the next episode (i can totally see him being overprotective of Milly, but i really hope she and Meryl get to fight for real this time)
Oh that is a really good scene to pick as an analogy fr fr. I think you are right in the sense that it's closer to what we got in Stargaze + there's no Colourless Expression. I really hope Milly gets to use her gun too. Let her go ape shit!!!
My point in comparing these two particular scenes wasn't really to say it's the Stargaze's version of CE, it's more to highlight how the two are mutually exclusive - CE can't really happen in Stargaze, because it is tonally just a different story. They stay together against all odds, when in Trimax they had to part - in some cases, forever - because some odds were unbeatable like that.
I know I’m a bit late getting to the whole pronouncing your username thing but I tend to approach it pronouncing the “nmber” like nimber, like the I in the word “it”. Dunno what a nimber is but I do know you’re shelter nimber one and I adore your trigun stuff and that’s all that’s important
Nah you aren't late it's always fun time here
Gdfgvg omg 🥺 nimber sounds kinda cute thoooo idk it just sounds approachable somehow
Dude it's kinda of beautiful to see you consume trigaze how the studio probably intended it to be received. I'm a teir 11 hater of it from season 1 but I love seeing your posts and art about it.
Getting pretty love and peace pilled reading you ww ep 8 thoughts
Hehe thank youuuu see I'm glad you are having fun even though new anime isn't your cup of tea.
The most important thing about fandom is having fun and being yourself!
I'm really enjoying Stargaze and Stampede as an established fan and I feel like it is the intended way. Obviously it has its downsides - I saw quite a bit of people feeling disappointed that it isn't its own thing, for example, a valid point. However, to me it is the first time in my memory when I'm the fan that's being serviced during fanservice :D I'm sitting in my mind's palace with a corkboard full of red strings and Trimax pulled apart on an autopsy table by my side and I'm giggling and I'm kicking my feet.
Hi, I saw your post about Stargaze and I wanted to ask about the bit about foreshadowing the twist! Do you mean they foreshadowed Wolfwood surviving and could you expand on that? Because I might have missed the foreshadowing on this! I only saw all the obvious death flags :DD so him living was very unexpected to me! (I'm overjoyed though 🥹🥹)
Anon i know it is kinda crazy tbh I'm putting on my tin hat for this.
Short answer: I thought that Wolfwood dying would be thematically incoherent for the story I felt the writers were putting together after I realised both Midvalley and Leonoff survived their confrontation with Vash.
Long answer:
First moment that made me go "hm" was the ending of Hoppered's arc. It was very gritty, very Trimax-coded, but I thought it was strange they gave Hoppered two other, much more prominent, characters' moments. Namely, forcibly putting Vash's weapon onto himself (Wolfwood, after Rai-dei's defeat in Trimax) and making Vash kill himself through a hostage situation (Legato, both in Trimax and in 98). It was, especially in Legato's case, a climactic situation, and it was confusing that a moment of such weight happened at the very beginning of the season. Vash killed a person, something the entire manga was building up towards, and then he just had to keep going. Interesting.
Then I was surprised by Brad not dying. When I saw the way he send Jessica off - immediately paralleling Rem's actions in the prologue - I was sure that Leonoff attack will be a bloodbath, or at least Brad would take the L, like it happened in 98. But... Not only did Brad survive, not a single person from Ship 3 died.
Moving forward, Midvalley survives his confrontation with Vash. And we discover that Leonoff also lived, and was actually helping our heroes to defeat him! I was literally just fully shook by that point.
Because, the way I see it, Stargaze isn't just rehashing the plot points from the manga and 98 anime. It is in dialogue with them, and it keeps asking: what if everyone got to live to see another day? Even those doomed by the narrative not just because they are the tragic antihero to our protagonist, but because they are a sad little evil goon of the main villain that exist to show how evil he is? What if even these guys got to live?
And moreover, from the very first episode we get a conversation between Meryl and Zazie, in which Meryl affirms that she wants to find a way for plants and humans to coexist without exploitation, and immediately gets plant feedback with the feather vision, which is not at all a nightmare like it was in Trimax, but a hopeful serene space. And then we are shown direct evidence that Knives' plan was dead upon conception - dependent plants, apparently, need humans for something more than just sustenance. Or they die.
Like the whole thing is shaping up like Stargaze aims to find a third way, some kind of universe where everything ends well... And where everyone makes it. And the actual low point for Vash as a character was those first two episodes where he kills a man, and then is filled with determination to never let anyone die on his watch again if he can help it. They rehash events from the other adaptations, but not just because, it is all serving a purpose of building the story towards the good ending.
Which is why I was like oh if they kill Wolfwood that wouldn't make any sense. And then they didn't kill him.
I'm not sure how they'll handle Legato, because he id the only GHG, besides Ninelives (but I'm not sure he's anything but a huge robot anyhow), that didn't have a red herring of doubting Knives or wanting an escape. Even Elendira did, a week ago - tbh her still being a child should have been another hint, bc ain't no way they are writing her being brutally murdered by LR.
